The popularity of family-oriented water theme parks and recreational water facilities has increased dramatically in the last decade. Water parks have proliferated as adults and children, alike, seek the thrill and entertainment of water parks as a healthy and enjoyable way to cool off in the hot summer months.
Most water theme parks, like their dry counterparts, consist primarily of ride attractions. The most popular among these are water slides in which participants slide down a wet trough or tunnel and splash down into a pool of water. As demand for such water attractions has increased, water parks have continued to evolve ever larger and more complex water slides to thrill and entertain growing numbers of water play participants. Other popular ride attractions include surfing wave simulators, log flumes and white-water rafting.
Although these water ride attractions are very popular, they lack interactivity and do not encourage the user to participate with the attraction. Often, the user of these water ride attractions sits passively on an inner tube or other vehicle as they are conveyed along a slide surface or track.